Chapter 19: Chapter 19
This batch of new apprentices totaled just over a hundred people. Before long, Ron received an unsharpened classical longsword from the hands of someone in the front row.
The blade was long and slightly broad, a good three fingers wide. The hilt was long enough for a two-handed grip, but it didn’t feel clumsy when held in one hand either.
As for weight, Ron estimated it at roughly two or three pounds, but since he was no longer on Earth, an accurate comparison was difficult to make.
His estimate used water as a reference standard, but this world’s water might not be the same substance as Earth’s water. Equal volumes didn’t necessarily mean equal weights.
Still, he personally felt that this sword shouldn’t be considered heavy. At the very least, his current self could wield it single-handedly with ease.
After briefly familiarizing himself with the longsword in his hand, he heard Pierce speak again from the front: “Next, I will demonstrate the primary sword stances of the Ice Sword Art. You may follow along for now. Other instructors will provide detailed guidance later.”
With that, Pierce walked to the platform at the edge of the grounds, drew his own sword from his waist, and assumed the first position:
“Watch closely. This is the First Sword Stance. When you feel the sword in your hand is on the verge of slipping from your control and about to thrust forward, that indicates the movement is nearly complete.
“The so-called Sword Stance refers to that precise moment when a sword technique is on the cusp of being unleashed but hasn’t yet been released. At that instant, your body has already made full preparation to execute the strike.”
Pierce explained while maintaining the striking motion without moving. However, he didn’t proceed to demonstrate the next stance, clearly intending for the apprentices to imitate it on the spot. It likely also carried an element of assessment.
Seeing this, Ron naturally didn’t dare slack off, much less hold back. After all, his body was currently brimming with the Life Energy converted from last night!
Although he leaned toward doing nothing and simply letting Life Energy circulate naturally through his life processes for overall strengthening, in practice, that was actually quite difficult to achieve.
After all, the body’s daily activities didn’t necessarily exercise every tissue.
The 【Comprehensive Body Refinement Technique】 could perhaps achieve this, but its current version could only reach the limit of the human body, unable to surpass that limit and achieve transcendence.
Therefore, whether Ron preferred it or not, a transcendent skill like the Ice Sword Art was an indispensable key step he could not bypass.
At this moment, he focused entirely on imitating Pierce’s movement. First, he held the sword in one hand while leaning his body slightly forward, executing a thrusting motion. But just as the force was about to reach a critical threshold, he abruptly stopped.
The next instant, Ron felt a twitch in his forearm muscles, and his right hand nearly involuntarily thrust the sword forward.
“Hm?”
Ron was somewhat taken aback. Seeing that the others wore the same expression made him feel a bit better. He then calmed down and thought carefully.
He realized that while Pierce’s demonstrated movement appeared very simple, just a static pose, it actually involved the thorough interconnection of the body’s tissue structure. It was only one final step away from becoming a complete kinetic process.
It was like a standing long jump where you had already completed the arm swing, the crouch, and the rise, and then in the instant before jumping, you froze all of those movements in place.
At that point, every aspect of the body was primed and ready to move. It naturally couldn’t be easily suppressed, let alone directly forced into such a state.
When Ron imitated Pierce, he didn’t simply assume the final posture directly. Doing so would have only replicated the surface appearance without achieving the full interconnection of bodily tissue structures that Pierce’s First Sword Stance entailed.
He figured out the preparatory movements needed for an ordinary person to achieve the Sword Stance state, based on Pierce’s demonstration and explanation.
Because the First Sword Stance was simply too basic, appearing to be nothing more than a straight thrust, most of the others on the field had also figured out the key to achieving it.
If only for an instant, many people including Ron had likely already met the standard. But what Pierce, or rather the Ice Sword Art, demanded was sustained maintenance.
It was somewhat like a small ball perched at the edge of a slope. By natural course, it would roll down along the incline. To artificially suppress that tendency was far easier said than done.
But Pierce didn’t over-explain. He held the First Sword Stance for roughly five minutes before beginning the demonstration of the next stance.
The next stance was even harder. If the First Sword Stance only involved partial interconnection of the upper arms and torso, the Second Sword Stance simultaneously incorporated the interconnection of both arms, both legs, and the torso.
This also dispelled a minor doubt that had just crept into Ron’s mind. Sword training would inevitably have a bias, and not just toward strength as Jason had said. In practice, it might bias even more heavily toward one particular arm.
Pierce’s demonstrated Second Sword Stance answered Ron’s doubt. While swordsmanship certainly had distinctions between the dominant sword hand and the off hand, on the level of body training, there was little difference between left and right.
One could even say that someone proficient in the Ice Sword Art could, with only a little practice, switch their dominant hand from right to left, or vice versa, without much difficulty.
Was transcendent power really so inflexible a thing!
Having failed to even master the First Sword Stance, the Second went without saying. Ron couldn’t even replicate it for that fleeting instant, and the vast majority of new apprentices on the field were in the same boat.
But Pierce wasn’t going to wait for the apprentices to figure things out at their own pace. After all, he was only here for the demonstration this time. The subsequent teaching would be handled by other instructors.
Ultimately, spending a little over an hour, Pierce demonstrated all twelve Sword Stances in their entirety.
Although from the Second Sword Stance onward Ron was completely unable to imitate them, he still observed Pierce’s demonstrations with the utmost attentiveness. Some apprentices had already begun practicing the First Sword Stance on their own.
Ron felt that while further instruction would follow, a personal demonstration and explanation by the territory’s Chief Instructor surely contained unique insights. At the very least, doing unrelated things while someone was presenting a demonstration would be quite rude.
Even someone as desperate for transcendent power as Ron wouldn’t be in such a rush over a brief moment here and there.
…
After finishing his demonstration, Pierce didn’t say anything further and simply left. The squad of instructors who had arrived with him was left behind.
Once Pierce departed, one of the instructors with a rugged face who looked like someone not to be trifled with began issuing the first command to the assembled apprentices:
“You have one hour to form teams among yourselves. Barring any surprises, these will be your closest comrades from here on out, so choose wisely!”
Receiving the order, the apprentices immediately sprang into action. Ron hadn’t yet decided who to team up with. After all, he had joined the territory guard early and wasn’t familiar with most of the people here, except those who lived near his home.
Combined with the fact that he was fundamentally an outsider, making a choice was even more difficult.
However, before Ron could reach a decision, Justin arrived at his side with Karel, whom they had just met that morning, along with two other unfamiliar youths.
“Ron, want to join our team?”
The speaker was Karel, and the team he was referring to appeared to be one he had organized himself.